Video production has traditionally been a costly and cumbersome task. Individuals that desired to generate a video presentation, whether to tell for example, a life story, cover a special event or present a particularly compelling narration of events have had to spend many hours with little or no direction in gathering information and materials for the video.
Typically, an individual will determine that they want to have a video presentation produced for viewing at, for example, a wedding or an anniversary party, or as a video presentation produced to reflect the event itself. In furtherance thereof, raw source materials are gathered, such as for example, photos, video clips and/or other information to be used as source media materials in the video presentation. This raw source material is then, typically, brought into a video production center where a consultant/production manager may consult with the customer about video production. Upon receiving direction from the consultant/production manager, the customer then makes a number of decisions about the video, providing the consultant/production manager with a general idea of what is desired. This information along with the large amount of raw source material brought in is then given to the consultant/production manager, who sifts through, generates and edits the final video. This process may be described as a “back-end” type business and/or a linear business model. It is described as a back-end business because large amounts of raw source materials are first brought in, then decisions related to video production are made later. It is “linear” because this approach also requires the consultant/production manager to be engaged from project conception to completion. Back-end business and linear business models undesirable because they are quite labor intensive, have limited scalability and efficiency, and are correspondingly very costly for the customer.
In addition, back-end business models are inefficient, because even though the customer has brought in relatively large amounts of raw source materials, quite often specific additional application and contextual information must later be obtained after initial consultation with the consultant/production manager following the consultant/production managers review of the source material, requiring repeat consultations and leading to frustration on the part of the customer and numerous lost hours.
During this rather lengthy process, it is quite difficult to accurately estimate overall cost including the production costs and/or the cost to the customer, let alone production time, until the relatively large quantities of raw source materials are cataloged and reviewed to determine if additional material will be required. Therefore, a customer on a relatively tight budget or even under a relatively short time frame may again be quite frustrated with the costly nature of current back-end and linear business models and the lengthy time frame and uncertainty associated with current business models.
In addition, typically the consultant/production manager performs not only the function of guiding and consulting with the customer relating to the creative aspects of the video, but also performs the actual video editing work leading to higher costs passed to the customer. Additionally, the customer is frequently forced to do the pre-production work themselves or incur high production cost associated with this business model.
Further, the customer is typically limited to only one retail location where the particular consultant they have been using is located. This is because typically there is no Customer Relationship Management (CRM) network system in place, which can become very inconvenient for frequent business travelers.
Another challenge facing users is that the video that is produced can only be edited by the software program in which it was produced, such that if the user desires to modify the presentation, the user typically has to utilize the original software program in which the video was originally produced.
Therefore, what is desired is a system and method for organizing and simplifying the process for video production so that the total costs to the customer and/or associated with the video production may be reduced.
It is further desired to provide a system and method for generating a video presentation that provides a relatively accurate forecast of when the video will be completed and/or provided to the user, such as providing a projected delivery date.
It is still further desired to provide a system and method that provides increased direction for the customer to reduce the time and total quantity of raw source materials brought into the studio or production facility, for production of the video presentation.
It is also desired to provide a system and method that allows a customer to set the total price for and/or the total length of the final video presentation at the beginning of the video production process providing greater certainty for the customer.
It is further desired to provide a system and method that allows for the video presentation to be made and supplied at a lower cost to the customer by limiting the time required by the consultant, who typically has a high hourly rate, for generation of the video presentation.
It is yet further desired to provide a system and method that includes a CRM, allowing more flexibility for the customer to meet with various consultants at various locations while maintaining efficiency.
Finally, it is desired to provide a system that is capable of generating coded source material, which may be organized and sequenced, in multiple file formats. In this manner, various different editing systems may be used and still properly import the coded source material, such that, the coded material is properly organized and sequenced.